NIPR Gets New President

A new president has been elected to head the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations, NIPR.

The new helmsman, Dr Ike Neliaku, was elected unopposed by members of the institute at the end of the its Annual General Meeting in Abuja. 

Chairman of the Electoral Commitee, Chief Casca Ogusu, who made the announcement, also announced Professor Emmanuel Dandaura, a communication scholar, elected as Vice President of the institute. 

The major contenders include Dr. Ike Neliaku of the FCT Chapter and Mrs. Nkechi Ali-Balogun, the Lagos Chapter Chairman. The latter was unable to make it to the council.

Before the announcement of the election of both the President and Vice President, the institute announced the election of 17 members of its Governing Council. They were earlier elected by registered members at the AGM of the institute.

NIPR is run by a 22-member Governing Council, comprising the 17 elected members and 5 nominees of the federal government. The President and Vice President double as Chairman and Vice Chairman of the council with a 2-year tenure.

In his acceptance speech, Dr Neliaku noted that the new council members would use the NIPR platform to chart a new path for the institute, and also re-invent Nigeria.

“Our profession need a new a dimension. We’ll make sure PR is practiced by PR Professionals. We won’t allow our ‘break fast’ to be taken by people that are not trained.

“We’ll take the issue of compliance and enforcement seriously, reinvent our profession for the purpose and the value of the nation.

“Countries that understand the value of the Public Relations always excel , so therefore we are going to rebrand Nigeria.

“As we have our colleague as Minister of Information, who understands strategic communications. We’ll work with him to generate new ideas with support of my team.

“I want to assure that with our collective efforts, we can rewrite, reinvent and review our profession for better in this new dawn,” he concluded.